About

Alumni Class Stones at Kirkpatrick Chapel

What are all those engraved stones doing in the Kirkpatrick building? They aren’t fundraising bricks. And sorry, we don’t have any time capsules buried behind them.

The answer is all about ceremony. Starting in 1876, engraving Kirkpatrick Chapel building stones became a graduation tradition. Initially, each graduating class would choose the location of the stone to be engraved. In later years, new stones were placed adjacent to the stone belonging to the class that graduated 50 years before.

In years past, the day the stones were unveiled was an exciting one. Students gathered on the lawn behind Old Queens to see their class year revealed, and sometimes they’d create keepsakes by holding a piece of paper over the stone it and rubbing a pencil over it.

Check out our map of the stones from 1878 through 2004. An updated map is in the works.